http://green-man-2010.livejournal.com/ (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
green-man-2010.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
talkpolitics2010-04-21 06:23 pm
green-man-2010.livejournal.com) wrote in talkpolitics2010-04-21 06:23 pm
Entry tags:
International Week - a fairer deal for the developing world.
Ok dudes, sorry to post on the wrong topic last time - so here's myr take on the international situation for International Week.
A lot of Brits are up in arms about immigration. i was on the doorstep this morning, canvassing for the Greens when a man points out to me that 5 houses in his street were sold recently - and only one went to an English family. he said it like this was some sort of problem, and confirmed it with a rant about foreigners.
Now, it caused a stir in the 50s when we suddenly have a boatload of Afro Carribean people turn up in England on the boat The Windrush .
These men were invited over by the government - basically to do the jobs the white people did not want. we also got lots of nurses coming over from abroad. this meant that the countries they came from were suddenly short of nurses, but what the hell - we were brits and we could pay them more than their own country.
But what really kicked things off was the expulsoin of many middle class Asians ( Indians and pakistanis ) from Uganda. As they were Commonwealth citizens, the Uk too them in. And then we had the Somalis...
So now, we have had wave after wave of refugees settling in the UK. In some areas, the local white population is outnumbered, but immigration of this nature is mainly in the cities. go to the smaller towns and the rural areas of the Uk , and the population is mainly white, but in some areas, racial tension is high because he white people resent being in a minority on the streets and in the schools.
But why do people come to the UK anyway? The fact that we run a Welfare state is only part of the answer. look at what goes on in Somalia, and you see a complete breakdown in law and order. make no mistake, civil war, poverrty and extreme conditions lead many to flee their country of origin and settle elsewhere.
If you open the kitchen door and find the sink overflowing, there is no point grabbing a mop, or trying to bail out with a bucket. it makes more sense to turn off the tap first of all. Rather than invest in Border police and vote for tougher legislation on immigration, the Greens argue that the causes of ecological and economic disasters abroad should be addressed as a matter of urgency.
Britain , like many countires, sells arms abroad. In fact it is a principle export. rather than making the world a safer place, it fills the world with refugees fleeing the conflicts that rage in their native lands. Our rampant consumerism is also pushing poorer nations deeper into poverty.
Sweat shop labour in the far east means that tee shirts are cheap on the UK high street, but that poor people get little reward for their hard work in their own country. this also spurs many to smuggle themselves into the UK.
So, Greens say that international treaties that protect workers rights and limit the deadly arms trade are the only effective ways to limit the supply of illegal immigrants. The Berlin Wall did not keep people fleeing to the west, and the Border Police will not keep out the refugees who continue to flee the developing world and the problems they face there.
On the other hand, if we fix those problems, in the long term , this will mean fewer illegal immigrants. So, we advocate -
Support for democratic movements and Trade Union rights for workers in places where they have not got them.
A limiit on arms exports
A change in the way that muultinationals are allowed to operate in developing nations, and trade rules that alllow local economies to grow instead of being exploited.
Implementing the Tobin Tax - preventing greedy speculators from exploiting weaker currencies.
The better we can make life for people in Somalia and places like it, the less we will be concerned with migrants sneaking through our borders, the less we will hear of piracy off the coast of West Africa, and the less we will see of racial tension in our societies.
A lot of Brits are up in arms about immigration. i was on the doorstep this morning, canvassing for the Greens when a man points out to me that 5 houses in his street were sold recently - and only one went to an English family. he said it like this was some sort of problem, and confirmed it with a rant about foreigners.
Now, it caused a stir in the 50s when we suddenly have a boatload of Afro Carribean people turn up in England on the boat The Windrush .
These men were invited over by the government - basically to do the jobs the white people did not want. we also got lots of nurses coming over from abroad. this meant that the countries they came from were suddenly short of nurses, but what the hell - we were brits and we could pay them more than their own country.
But what really kicked things off was the expulsoin of many middle class Asians ( Indians and pakistanis ) from Uganda. As they were Commonwealth citizens, the Uk too them in. And then we had the Somalis...
So now, we have had wave after wave of refugees settling in the UK. In some areas, the local white population is outnumbered, but immigration of this nature is mainly in the cities. go to the smaller towns and the rural areas of the Uk , and the population is mainly white, but in some areas, racial tension is high because he white people resent being in a minority on the streets and in the schools.
But why do people come to the UK anyway? The fact that we run a Welfare state is only part of the answer. look at what goes on in Somalia, and you see a complete breakdown in law and order. make no mistake, civil war, poverrty and extreme conditions lead many to flee their country of origin and settle elsewhere.
If you open the kitchen door and find the sink overflowing, there is no point grabbing a mop, or trying to bail out with a bucket. it makes more sense to turn off the tap first of all. Rather than invest in Border police and vote for tougher legislation on immigration, the Greens argue that the causes of ecological and economic disasters abroad should be addressed as a matter of urgency.
Britain , like many countires, sells arms abroad. In fact it is a principle export. rather than making the world a safer place, it fills the world with refugees fleeing the conflicts that rage in their native lands. Our rampant consumerism is also pushing poorer nations deeper into poverty.
Sweat shop labour in the far east means that tee shirts are cheap on the UK high street, but that poor people get little reward for their hard work in their own country. this also spurs many to smuggle themselves into the UK.
So, Greens say that international treaties that protect workers rights and limit the deadly arms trade are the only effective ways to limit the supply of illegal immigrants. The Berlin Wall did not keep people fleeing to the west, and the Border Police will not keep out the refugees who continue to flee the developing world and the problems they face there.
On the other hand, if we fix those problems, in the long term , this will mean fewer illegal immigrants. So, we advocate -
Support for democratic movements and Trade Union rights for workers in places where they have not got them.
A limiit on arms exports
A change in the way that muultinationals are allowed to operate in developing nations, and trade rules that alllow local economies to grow instead of being exploited.
Implementing the Tobin Tax - preventing greedy speculators from exploiting weaker currencies.
The better we can make life for people in Somalia and places like it, the less we will be concerned with migrants sneaking through our borders, the less we will hear of piracy off the coast of West Africa, and the less we will see of racial tension in our societies.
no subject
now, your mileage may vary on that, but i respectfully suggest that Thatcher did not provide the authentic voice of the oppressed.
You want to quote anyone saying "Stop sanctions, drop AI and do this instead "?
Well, the floor is yours.
no subject
However, I'd argue that sanctions are generally ineffective except in certain instances. Nobody can say that actions against South Africa had *nothing* to do with the fall of apartheid. I just think it's more than a bit presumptuous to assume that it'll work anywhere else, despite long evidence of the ineffective nature of sanctions and diplomatic pressure alone. I'm sure Archbishop Tutu favors sanctions because they are non-violent and he has seen them work in South Africa, but they're hardly a cure-all or even a reasonably effective measure in most circumstances. How long has North Korea been sanctioned? Iran? Cuba? And their regimes continue - and what opposition they have doesn't seem to come from the sanctions alone. Aside from South Africa and apartheid, when was the last time sanctions and diplomacy alone were enough to create regime change? Tyrants take guns to remove, in almost every case, because tyrants always starve last.
no subject
Ok. Gerry haines also thinks that Aid is a bad idea, and advocates Fair Trade as an alternative.
To me, joining AI isn't so much ' meddling in their affairs' as giving them the support that *they* are asking for. Ditto Trade Justice. I don't say that sanctions are all we can do, or that it works every time- but there are things wwe can do , and should do. Aid is not one of them, for reasons I outlined in my OP on the subject.
No, it's about AI, support for democratic movements in ways they ask for, about fair trade and the empowerment and education of women thru NGO programmes - I think thiese have a better track record than sitting back and letting them do it all by themselves.
The GOBI initiative of the 1980s did work, after all.
no subject
no subject
A group that campaigns for prisoners of of conscience throughout the world.
Googling it will get you info on wikipedia and elsewhere.
Basically, we, the volunteer members write letters to prisoners in jail, and also to the authorities holding them. Identifying ourselves as concerned citizens from other countries, we demand that they hold proper trials and release political prisoners.
We also write to our own government officials and ask that they put diplomatic pressure on certain regimes in order to secure the release of political prisoners not held because of violent crime.
no subject
I dunno. At this point I'm beginning to wonder how Western intervention, of any sort - letter writing, sanctions, wars, or what have you - can do any good. The letters show support from the outside, which is often taken as a sign of the imprisoned individual's connections to foreign anti-government elements. Sanctions, as I said, starve the poor and leave the rich in power unless they are so crippling as to almost ensure a total breakdown of sovereignty. Wars... well, we can all agree that democracy by the barrel of the gun doesn't really work too well. Too much aid encourages corruption and a sense of helplessness. Too much lending creates the financing trap so many nations found themselves in in the late 90s-early 00s.
But then I've become unbearably pessimistic in the past few years.
no subject
it happens to me, even. there are only so many blatently racist comments that I can listen to before giving up and going home, but then, looking at the bigger picture, the falling IMRs across the globe, and I see that the war against endemic poverty is one that we are slowly winning.
Unicef, Fair Trade, Amnesty International. These are the big 3 that deserve our support, I think.
Also, any group doing the things that Unicef does as an NGO.